#049
3 hours later.
We looked down at the corpse of the giant scorpion sprawled before our eyes. It seemed like a lie that just moments ago it had been raising its tail stiffly, full of poison.
‘Phew…’
And unsurprisingly, I was once again in tatters. I felt like I’d become a specimen showing just how ragged a person could be while still alive. The giant scorpion had defense rivaling mushroom mobs and the strongest attack power we’d faced so far. The most threatening thing had been its poison, but I’d drunk the Melbrain potion I’d been saving until the very last moment before starting, so I could avoid the humiliation of begging Carlisle for potions.
We’d defeated the boss mob, but of course I couldn’t relax. Hadn’t we already experienced an unexpected second mutation in Wanderer’s Plains? I was far behind with Carlisle and Taro in front. This time I didn’t care about final blows or rewards. The hidden dungeon entrance had to open for it to be completely conquered. Whatever happened, I planned not to step forward until then. If something occurred, Carlisle would handle it somehow.
My inventory was almost empty. Red lights had come on in my stamina and health bars too. From now on, even very small dangers could be serious threats to me.
I glared at the scorpion’s corpse lying with its belly split open, not letting my guard down.
“Oh! It’s changing!”
Taro shouted. As he said, the scorpion’s corpse finally began to change. No, should I say changing – it was disappearing. It shimmered faintly like a mirage, then water began rising around it.
“Water…”
I muttered vacantly. It was the first water I’d seen since entering the desert. (The fake oases we’d passed had been almost completely dried up.) The rising water swallowed the scorpion’s corpse, forming a pool, then gradually expanded to create a spring. The water quality was quite clear, if not drinkable.
Even the vision that had been shimmering like a mirage gradually became clearer and began to appear as vivid as reality. At the same time, trees appeared faintly around it, and eventually several palm trees surrounded the spring in the blink of an eye.
So now the scenery we’d commonly picture when thinking of an oasis appeared before our eyes. Though small and dried-looking, real coconuts hung from the palm trees, and the fishy, acrid smell of monsters that had been thick around us until just now disappeared instantly.
And finally, in the center of the oasis spring, the palm-shaped decorative stone I’d seen in the Wanderer’s Plains cave rose up. Only seeing that did I feel relieved. The boss mob had been conquered.
I was about to rush toward the decorative stone when I hesitated. I had to enter the water.
Whether spring, river, or sea, I had developed a trauma about water. In the repeated tutorials, when I was defenseless or when my stamina was exhausted, what suddenly appeared to attack me were mostly sharks or crocodiles. Even this time, wasn’t the first thing to attack me seaweed from underwater?
Until now I’d had the help of Tranquility Potions, but not anymore.
In a tense state, I carefully examined the water and surroundings. The spring was moderately clear and not very deep, so I could see the bottom clearly. There were only small ripples from the wind – no living creatures were visible. Originally, the setting was that nothing lived in desert oases anyway, but so many things had changed that I couldn’t relax trusting only that setting.
I raised my gaze to look for Carlisle. Carlisle first stuck his sword into the water to test it, then walked straight into the water. The gradually deepening water reached up to his thighs when he got to where the decorative stone was.
‘Is that the maximum depth?’
At least it meant it wasn’t very deep. Of course, depth wasn’t the issue.
Carlisle briefly examined the decorative stone then looked back at me. His staring gaze was asking what I was doing and why I wasn’t coming in. I didn’t particularly want to earn his recognition for bravery at this point, but I also didn’t want to be dismissed as a frustrating and irritating person, so I swallowed once and stepped into the water.
If something happened, Carlisle would block it. Surely he wouldn’t let me die right before mission completion.
Carlisle’s combat gear probably had waterproof functions, but my shabby clothes didn’t. The colder-than-expected water penetrated my clothing and wrapped around my bare skin. I flinched at the moment of getting wet, but…
‘It’s… refreshing.’
Unexpectedly, my body heated from the desert heat and combat welcomed that coldness. It felt like the contamination from dust and monster fluids was being completely washed away.
‘I’d like to take everything off and wash properly…’
Even returning to town, I wouldn’t be able to wash properly. There were purification potions, but potions felt different from actually washing with real water. I glanced down at the water. It seemed to give off a fresh fragrance somehow.
‘Drinking it… probably wouldn’t work.’
The moment I thought about being thirsty, the thirst I’d barely suppressed with frozen berries surged up.
“Captain! Raon!”
Then Taro’s voice echoed.
Looking back, Taro was running toward us holding something.
“This is edible! It’s real fruit!”
Splashing over, Taro held what he’d brought right up to our faces. A sweet fragrance faintly lingered. Saliva gathered in my mouth without me realizing it. It was half of a split coconut. About half was filled with transparent juice. It had apparently fallen to the ground and Taro had picked it up and already tasted it.
Taro, who’d been indifferent to everything until now, was slightly excited. And rightfully so – seeing real fruit in a place where everything was contaminated like now was a rare occurrence.
We shared the small amount of coconut juice and exchanged glances. I understood Taro’s excitement. It was the real taste of coconut.
“Please, Captain! Let’s stay just a little longer! If we go into the hidden dungeon, this might all disappear! I’ll pick them quickly!”
‘That’s true.’
I inwardly agreed with Taro’s words.
If it was like Wanderer’s Plains, there might be something better even if we entered the hidden dungeon, but it would likely be different from what was here. There might be no food at all, including fruits. I watched Carlisle’s reaction. I wanted to drink more too. Savoring the taste of the sweet juice I’d just drunk, I swallowed.
Carlisle looked down at the coconut that had become just an empty shell in an instant with a slightly crooked expression, then glanced at me. I don’t know how my expression appeared to him, but from his snort, it was clear I looked just as eager to eat as Taro.
“I’ll give you 10 minutes. Be ready to jump out immediately if anything happens.”
Saying that, Carlisle began walking out of the water with splashing steps.
“Yes sir! I’ll be right back!”
Taro ran straight outside. In the blink of an eye, he passed Carlisle and left the spring first, then jumped onto a palm tree and quickly climbed up the trunk to pick coconuts and throw them to the ground.
‘Is that a person or a monkey?’
I stared blankly, half amazed and half dumbfounded.
‘Should I go out and help too?’
But I had no confidence in climbing a tree with no branches, and I had even less stamina.
I gave up cleanly and withdrew my gaze.
‘What should I do while waiting?’
I thought about following the two out of the water, but I decided to just stay by the decorative stone. Being alone in the water wasn’t very comfortable, but I had no confidence in ‘jumping out immediately if anything happened.’ I don’t know if those two were confident in their reflexes or had teleportation items, but I had neither.
‘Since I’m in the water anyway, should I wash a bit?’
My whole body was gritty with sand. I first took off my shirt, roughly rinsed it in the water, and hung it on the display stand(?) where the decorative stone was. Taking off my pants too seemed a bit much, so I just kept my overalls on. If an ’emergency situation’ occurred, being shirtless might be okay but going pantless would be problematic.
I put my head underwater with my eyes open. The underwater rock that jutted up like a display stand right in front was clearly visible. The rock looked natural, but it was covered with what seemed like artificial characters. Curiosity struck me, so I roughly ran my hands through my rustling hair and approached the rock to examine the carved characters.
They were characters I’d never seen before, and I thought they were the unknowable characters commonly seen in fantasy movies and games, but strangely, as I looked carefully, their meaning came to mind.
‘Night at the beach… invitation? And…’
Moss on the rock was covering part of the sentence, so I carelessly brushed that part with my hand. That’s when it happened.
“…?”
The letters floated up, leaving the rock and rising into the water. And the sentence began moving like a ribbon, starting to surround me.
“!”
Sensing something was wrong, I hurriedly tried to surface. But it was already too late. The ribbon of text had become a whirlpool and wrapped around me. I struggled but it was useless. The whirlpool pulled me down and further down.
‘But the bottom was shallow?’
[… is beginning.]
Something like a status window seemed to appear, but the window was distorted messily as if caught in currents. I couldn’t even see the text properly to know what was beginning. It wasn’t a monster attack, and I was bewildered by this first-time situation, but I didn’t have the capacity to think about what was happening.
The light-touched water surface became distantly far away. My vision was blocked by the bubbling foam of the whirlpool. Unable to breathe, my mind became hazily dim.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
